New Look, New You
by EggRoyalty
Summary: Lars contemplates the state of his hair and himself. Steven goes butterfly hunting with mixed results.


AN: first up, thanks for the great response for my first fic! I am here to meet the post-Wanted Special needs of every content-starved fan out there (including myself).

secondly,

ya'll write more lars content u hear/?

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Lars looked into his bathroom mirror for the first time in several weeks and forced himself not to wince at his appearance. He hadn't cut his hair since… since at least a week before being snatched up and dragged to Homeworld. Apparently, Steven's healing powers had also sped up his hair growth, as the cotton-candy mane currently spilling over his shoulders should have taken at _least_ a year and a half to grow out.

 _Well, at least it'll make it more convenient if he needs to use his magical portal storage thingy_ , he thought, while carefully wrapping a beaded hair-tie to separate the largest part of the fluffy strands from his head.

Blinking at his reflection, he turned to look at himself from all angles and hummed.

"Not bad, for a pink zombie I guess." Nodding to himself, he opened the bathroom door and headed out, feeling completely confident in himself for the first time since coming back home. _Time for work_.

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Despite all the sudden changes in his life, as soon as he was back in Beach City, most things settled down into normalcy. Steven, Connie, and the Crystal Gems went out and fought gem monsters, and Lars and Sadie worked at the Big Donut.

Besides the occasional inquiry towards his unusual skin tone-

' _It's body paint._ '

-his days passed on with monotonous routine.

 _It's kind of funny, how so much changed in so little time_. He shot a glance over to where Steven and Sadie were talking animatedly over something together. Now that I'm back home, it's like nothing even happened.

His parents still loved him. Sadie, Buck, Sour Cream, and Jenny still considered him their friend, and he had new friends in Steven (whose compassion he really didn't deserve) and the Off-Colors, who he'd miraculously bonded with during his stay on Homeworld. It was weird, being surrounded by people who actually liked him for him. Before, he would always try to change himself so he could fit in. These days, he didn't feel the ever-present urge to act like someone he wasn't. In fact, it felt like everyone-

Lars' thoughts were interrupted by the sound of the doorbell's cheerful jingle.

"-nyways, the gems need me for a suuuuuper important mission so I have to go. Bye Sadie! Bye Lars! I like your new haircut!" Shaking himself awake, Lars managed a small wave as the cheerful boy departed, bouncing out the door as excitable as ever. He was still staring at the spot that Steven had just vacated when he felt a gentle nudge against his ribs. When he turned to look at his assailant, he was greeted by the sight of Sadie's face mere inches away from his as she gave him a conspiratorial look.

"I see that you and Steven are getting along-" she paused before letting a grin creep onto her face, "or rather, you're getting better at being around him. What brought this on? I mean- you actually _smiled_ at him when he left!" Lars blinked. Had he been? _It doesn't really matter_ , he supposed. Giving Sadie a genuine smile, he patted her arm and leaned against the countertop.

"Well, he did save my life in a way," sometimes he forgot that he had actually died onHomeworld, "and also my hair is kind of a magic portal to a pocket universe now. So it'd be weird if I wasn't at least civil to him." But Steven was pretty cool, now that Lars had actually gotten to know him on a more personal level-

" _No way_." Apparently, he'd said that last part out loud. "You think Steven is cool _?_ Just who are you, and what have you done with the real Lars?" He knew she meant it as a joke, but the statement made him pause. Was the guy who snapped at everyone really him, or was that just his own way of making sure people didn't get close enough to get to know what he was like on the inside? Looking back on everything that had happened so far, he realized that the 'real Lars' must have finally shown himself on the day he'd accepted that he was trapped with Steven.

 _It's okay to be afraid._

Grinning to himself, Lars nudged Sadie back. "Maybe this _is_ the real Lars, and the guy you used to know was just a hologram." Sadie laughed and gave him a light shove, which did little more than make him sway a bit.

"Maybe you're right! I mean, you're definitely way more solid than before." Sadie leaned against the countertop and closed her eyes, a dreamy expression on her face. "I bet you could even pick me up if you want to- oh! Wait- wait, I didn't mean that literally!"

"Too late!" A short cry of surprise escaped her as Lars scooped her up in his arms, one around her back and the other behind her knees. When she glanced at his face, she was surprised to see him looking totally relaxed, as if she didn't weigh a thing. He spun her around once before setting her down, her cheeks flushed pink. The old Lars would never have been able to do that.

"Well," she huffed with amusement, "I guess that answers that." Even now, the easygoing smile on his face had stayed put throughout. He had to admit, all the new self-confidence? It felt good.

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The rest of the afternoon passed in relative slowness. Besides Steven, the most action the Big Donut ever really saw was the occasional tourist or hungry beach-goer. Not much happened around the place that wasn't gem related, now that Lars thought about it. He'd told Sadie to go home early as part of his attempt to make up for past actions, but without her there the place was _really boring_.

At least, until Connie came rushing in, her sword slung haphazardly over her shoulder in its scabbard. Her eyes darted wildly around the inside of the building before landing on Lars, and he had to force himself not to jump back when the girl came dashing towards him.

" _You_! Where's Lion?" Lars blinked at the finger pointed towards him and shifted to the side.

"And, uh...why exactly would I know where that giant furball is?" Connie groaned and ran a hand down her face in frustration at his response, then started pacing. Grimacing, Lars deduced that something must be wrong with Steven.

" _I don't know!_ Steven said that you two are connected by your- your... hair or something! Then he called me earlier and told me he had to use the warp pad with the gems since he couldn't find Lion and _then_ he sent me a voicemail telling me he needed my help immediately! So now you're the only person I could think of who could help!" By the end of her rant, she was panting, her phone clutched tightly in one hand while the other reflexively squeezed the sword's hilt. Lars quickly poured her a cup of water and handed it to the obviously worried girl, who gulped it down almost as soon as he'd handed it to her.

Running a hand through his hair, he frowned. If they didn't know where Lion was, using the pocket dimension wouldn't help. Plus, it only worked with Steven there anyways. Without that option, there wasn't really any-

"Wait!" Connie's shout jolted him back to reality and he couldn't help but glare.

"What!? I'm trying to think of some way to help you-" Lars reared back as Connie used both hands to lift herself up onto the countertop, a wild grin on her face.

"Lion can make portals to other places with his roar! What if you can do the same?" Lars thought back to the many times he'd seen Lion (and Steven, by extension) both appear in and depart from the Big Donut by using his magical portal roar before. Even though it would be cool he didn't think that any amount of screaming or shouting would allow him to do the same. After all, despite promising to never admit it to anyone, he had already tried, to little success.

That didn't mean there wasn't some other way for him to do it, though. "If I can, it's definitely not by roaring. It would have to be-" oh… _duh_.

Lars shot a glance at Connie, who was watching him expectantly. "I think I know how to do it," _in theory_ , "just gimme a sec-" Lars fished out the keys to the shop from his pocket and locked the front door, barely remembering to flip the sign to 'closed' before turning back to Connie, who was bouncing her leg impatiently.

"Ok, how are you going to-" He held up a hand to stop her. She was obviously worried about Steven, but he had only just come up with this idea. For Steven's sake, he hoped it would work.

"This better not make me look stupid," he muttered as he stuck his arms out, doing his best to remember what it felt like when Steven reached into his hair. It had to be similar, the feeling of reaching out for somewhere else.

So, with nothing left to lose, Lars squeezed his eyes shut, thought of Steven, and then dug his hands in and pulled.

"Lars! You did it!" At the sound of Connie's shout, he opened his eyes and gaped at the swirling pink portal in front of him. He was still clutching the edges, the feeling of space and time bending beneath his fingers making him shiver uncontrollably. Behind him, Connie wasted no time in catching him around the waist and sending them both hurtling through the opening, which closed behind them with a brief flash of light.

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"Hey! _We're here_! You can stop screaming now!" Gasping for breath, his jaw snapped shut with a click, and he noticed the sudden soreness in his throat. Just because he was a part of all this magic stuff didn't mean he was used to it!

Lars scrambled to his feet just in time to see Connie pull her sword out and charge down the slope of the snowy landscape they had landed in. Peeking over the crest, he could see the gems and Steven tangling with a… _giant butterfly_?

The huge wings sprouting from its back were undeniably butterfly-like, but its six legs were all sharp angles with deadly spear-like tips, one pointed directly towards-

" _STEVEN_!" Before he knew it, he was running towards the younger teen, panic and fear at the forefront of his mind as he charged.

The world seemed to slow down as he reached the base of the hill. In the seconds it took for him to leap forward and wrap his arms around the other boy, he saw Steven turn to look at him in shock before Lars shoved them both out of the way of the monstrous butterfly's piercing appendage just before it slammed down at the spot where they'd just been mere moments ago.

Steven enclosed them both in a bubble out of reflex and the two of them went skittering across the field, bouncing into several trees before they slammed into one of the corrupted gem's other legs, knocking it off balance just long enough for Garnet and Pearl to land the finishing blow. Lars barely even noticed the protective sphere vanishing with a soft pop as he sat up, clutching his head.

"Uughh... What-" he groaned, then remembered just why he had thrown himself headfirst into danger as he spotted a dazed Steven right next to him. "Steven-! You almost- Hhghkk!" Lars choked slightly as Steven pulled him into an impromptu hug, his tiny arms squeezing his midsection uncomfortably tight.

"Lars Lars Lars Lars _Lars_! What are you doing here!?" Lars opened his mouth to reply but was interrupted when another body collided with his, causing both him and Steven to fall back into the snowbank.

" _Steven_! Lars can make portals just like Lion!" Oh, right, _Connie_.

"Wow, really? Wait- Connie's here too?! This is great!" And of course, nothing ever kept Steven down for long.

Pulling both Lars and Connie back to their feet took no effort for him at all, and before he knew it, Lars was leaning down and once again in a group hug. Glancing to the side, he watched the Crystal Gems bubble the monster's remains and give Lars a knowing look.

If anyone said that his cheeks were even more pink than usual at the time, he'd blame it on the cold.

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EN: expect more good ol Lars Barriga fic from me soon


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